Are you old enough to remember the early days of personal computers and the acronym wysiwyg which stood for what you see is what you get and meant what you saw on your monitor would match the finished document when it was printed. I wonder if wysiwyg applies to more than old computer operating systems.

What does the real world look like to you?Survival of the fittest?Might makes right?A giant conspiracy theory?The version of the Golden Rule which says, “The one with the gold rules?”Does the real world look like today’s headlines in the news?

I am not naive.I know the world often looks like that and feels like that.But…What if the real world actually looks something like this?More cooperation than competition?More kindness and compassion than greed and violence?More goodness than hatred?More treating others the way they and we would like to be treated?More beauty than ugliness?More hope?More peace?More equality?More justice?What if that is the real world?The world out there?That world waiting for us to see it and name it and live in it.?WYSIWYG

I was young.
New to the job.
Trying my best to do my best and to make a good impression.“I want to talk with you.” He said.
My boss.
I gulped.
And so we talked.
He laid out possibilities for me which I had never considered.
Never imagined.
He ended by saying, “You can do this. You need to do this.”That conversation literally changed my life.
I am who I am today doing what I am doing today because he saw
a tomorrow for me that I could not see.
Not the specifics, but the direction.
The possibilities.

I still need voices like that.
Maybe now more than ever.
The voice of those who both see and know me and see beyond the edge of what is
and catch a glimpse of what might be.
And say to me with a certainty beyond what I know or feel at any given moment“You CAN do this.”
“You can DO this.”Because the world I imagine
The country I imagine
The neighborhood I imagine
Feels farther from my grasp today than it did yesterday.

So as we do our best to figure it out, here is the hard truth.
WE can do this!
We CAN do this!
We can DO this!
We can do THIS!

What would I wish for you today
If I had a magic wand;
Or a wish to make upon a star;
Or one final wish to be made at my command?
What would I wish just for you?

Maybe this.
I would wish for you a vision;
A dream big enough and bold enough and brave enough
To match both your spirit
And the wonder and the complexity of the world as it is.
I would wish for room in your life for wonder and mystery.
I would wish for room in your life for beauty and grace.
I would wish for you to find your way
Through the sorrow and disappointment,
Which is sure to come,
To the life which awaits you on the other side.
I would wish for you a sense of gratitude,
Deep and ever deepening gratitude,
Which opens you up to the promise of life.

If I had a wand to wave or a wish to make
This would be my wish for you.

I think the meaning and message of Christmas represents God’s vision for your life and mine.
And for the world in which we live.
God with us.
All of us.
Every last one of us from the greatest to the least.
God with us.
Not on my side or your side.
But OUR side.
And, the moment we realize that.
And accept that.
And live that.
We turn in the direction of peace.

If I remember correctly (and even if I don’t), the story goes something like this.
A sculptor was asked how he could sculpt such a beautiful horse.
His response was something like this.“I simply carve away anything that doesn’t look like a horse.”The gift of the artist is that she sees the horse in the marble or the painting on the canvas or the figure in the wood before she ever begins. She knows it is there.
Her job…
Her calling…
Is simply to set it free.

Maybe that is our job, as well.
To see what is not yet.
To know what lies hidden in the craziness and the chaos and the confusion of today and to chip away at it, piece by piece, until what is hidden is set free.

There is a war on Christmas.
But not the war some pundits spend so much time wringing their hands about or reminding us of. The war on Christmas is not about saying Happy Holiday rather than Merry Christmas or about some places having holiday trees rather than Christmas trees. And, it is not about no longer being able to put the familiar manger scene on public property. The real war on Christmas is waged in a much more insidious way and hits much closer to home.

The real war on Christmas is that subtle and sometimes not so subtle pressure we face to buy this toy or that piece of jewelry, and along with it buying into the implied promise that whatever gift we buy or whatever gift we desire will also bring the contentment or meaning or joy we long for.

And, the real war on Christmas is waged via our calendars.
With the days between now and then going by in a blur.
And rather than leaving us filled with hope and wonder and awe, we arrive at Christmas feeling exhausted and empty and wondering where the time went.

And, the real war on Christmas is waged via our own internal expectations.
The expectation that if we just do xxx, whatever xxx is for you, maybe this year will be different. This Christmas will be perfect.

The real war on Christmas…
At least for those of us who carve out a few moments to be together in a place like this in order to be reminded again of the hope and the courage and the grand dream of God wrapped up in the story of the birth of a child…
Is the relentless pressure we face to spend…
More time on Santa than following a star.
More time on tinsel than telling the story.
More time worrying about everything being perfect than pondering in our own hearts the meaning and mystery wrapped up in these days.

Please don’t get me wrong.
I love Christmas.
I love the decorations.
I love the carols.
I couldn’t wait for Thanksgiving to be over so I could begin to play Christmas music in my office and at home. I love lighting the candles on our Advent wreath each evening at dinnertime and having our tree up and being able to get our collection of crèches down out of the attic and carefully placed in their assigned places.
I even love the shopping and I don’t even mind the malls.
I love thinking about what gifts I would like to buy and to give.
But, I also know the stress.
And the expectations to get it all done.
And to do it all well.
And to have everything be just right.
And, how quickly the days fly by.

Which brings us to this…
The words from the Jewish prophet Habakkuk.I will take my stand to watch and station myself on the tower,And look forth to see what God will say to me concerning my complaint.And the LORD answered me:“Write the vision:Make it plain upon tablets,So the runner passing by in the valley below can read it,For the vision awaits its time;It hastens to the end – it will not lie.If it seems slow, wait for it;It will surely come, it will not delay. (Habakkuk 2: 1-2)

I have come to really appreciate these ancient words which we sometimes turn to as we turn towards Christmas. But to understand the image you have to be able to imagine the scene. Habakkuk is in the watchtower built into wall which surrounds the city which itself is built on the top of the hill. The tower overlooks not only the city, but also the valley below providing a vantage point to see any and all who come and go.
Can you picture it?
Hill.
City.
Watchtower.
Valley.
If so, then add these words:“Write the vision. Make it plain. So the runner passing by in the valley below can read it.”How big, do you think, would the words have to be for the runner not just to see them, but to read and to understand them as he races by in the valley below?
This big?
Or this big? (Imagine bigger!)
Or even larger? (Imagine bigger still!)

So, as we begin Advent and turn towards Christmas,
Here is what these ancient words have to say to me.
If we are to catch a glimpse of that vision…
A glimpse of that grand dream of God wrapped up in a child…
And pointed to in words like incarnation and Emmanuel and the angels’ words of “Fear not”
And, not have them get swallowed up in the tinsel and glitter and pressure of these days…
Then they must be written larger than this across our lives.
Not so much so that others will see them, but so that we will see them;
And in doing so remember.
Remember that in the pace and the rush and the wonder of these days that lead to Christmas…
There is still a message we still need to hear.
There is still a vision we still need to see.
There is still meaning and mystery we need to do our best to understand.